Reunion
by Sleep-Not
Summary: Two old aquaintances meet again and have a talk. Warning: this is a feel-good fic! ~_^


Disclaimer: Um, they aren't mine? I mean what else can I say? Stupid disclaimers…

Nothing gets as old so fast as writing disclaimers does (rant, rant). Weiss Kreuz belongs to whoever owns the rights to it, and that is not me, therefore I don't get any money from it either (damn!) and I don't get to manipulate the characters to my own evil twisted plots… Oh wait! Yes I do! Just not legally… Hey, freedom of expression, yo!

Author's note: This is not yaoi, I didn't really intend it to be but if you squint your eyes a lot you might (if you're thus inclined to) make out a leeeettle bit of shounen-ai.

Reunion

The café was busy, more so than usual because it was lunchtime. Through the bustle and talk though, there was one area of stillness and silence. This was a table for two in the far corner of the café, by the window. One person sat there slowly sipping their tea and staring out of the window at nothing. The person looked to be in their mid twenties with blond hair and large serious blue eyes that seemed to have seen more than someone that age should have. They looked up as the chair opposite them scraped and the person they'd been waiting for sat down. 

"I didn't think you'd come." Tsukiyono Omi said.

The newcomer was also in their mid twenties, with delicate features and dark blue eyes. He brushed a hand through his dark hair and met the other's eyes. 

"Neither did I." Naoe Nagi replied frankly.

The two men regarded each other solemnly for a while until a harried waitress came to take Nagi's order. 

"Just some green tea, please." He said without even glancing at the menu.

Omi chuckled lightly, "You're still not eating enough."

Nagi fingered his clothes that hung off him just a little bit too much, as if he'd lost a lot of weight suddenly. "My power takes a lot out of me."

"Schuldig told me you'd been sick."

Nagi did not reply to the question masked within Omi's statement and after a brief pause, Omi changed the subject:

"I thought I was a goner when I first saw Schuldig, the way he just appeared next to me in the middle of a crowd at Narita airport…" Omi smiled at the memory, "It wasn't long since I'd given up carrying my weapons, you see, and I was completely helpless should he decide to attack, but he just handed me a piece of paper with a phone number on and told me that old friends should keep in contact with each other, especially when one of them had been ill…"

"Schuldig never did know when to shut up for his own good." Nagi said a little roughly. 

"I didn't even know whose phone number he'd given me," Omi continued as if he'd never been interrupted. "And when I got your answering machine, I wasn't sure whether I was glad to have your number or whether I was glad you weren't in to pick up the phone."

Nagi inclined his head slightly in understanding. He'd had a long tiresome day and having come home straight from physical therapy to find Omi's hesitant message on the machine had been an added shock to the system. Part of him had been overjoyed to hear his old friend's voice once again and another part had been glad that he hadn't been in to pick up and hear that oh so familiar voice that time and circumstance had distanced. 

"We have a lot of history, don't we?" He said and Omi nodded. 

Physically, Omi had changed. He'd grown taller and lost that boyish look he'd sported when they first met. He looked his age now, except for his eyes which would always be older than the rest of him, and yet…

"You haven't changed." Nagi remarked.

"And you've changed an awful lot." Omi countered casually.

Not physically, of course; Nagi's power drained him enough that he would never grow as tall as his counterpart had. He still retained that lost boy aura and deadly apathy that hid his true thoughts so effectively but in the short time since seeing him again, Omi could detect a weariness and age in him that he'd never really seen in the boy he'd known before, when he'd been Bombay and the other had been Prodigy.  

Nagi diverted his eyes to look restlessly out of the window to avoid Omi's piercing gaze, "was there a reason you wanted to meet?"

"Seeing an old friend again isn't reason enough?"

"Look," Nagi snapped at Omi's seemingly innocuous comment, "You're not Weiss anymore and I'm not Schwarz. That's over; everyone has remade their lives as best they can. Why dredge it all up again?"

The waitress came back and served Nagi his tea, interrupting what Omi was going to say. "Anything else?" she asked. 

Nagi shook his head, but Omi ordered a large portion of carrot cake.

When the waitress left, Omi turned back to Nagi. "I was concerned for you," he said plainly, "I have heard not a whisper from you in so long, and then out of the blue I get this message-"

"Not from me." Nagi interrupted again.

"I get a message from someone I've always regarded with suspicion, if not hatred, that someone I've almost always held to be a dear friend is unwell, should I not be concerned? Of all the things I suspect of Schuldig, nefarious meddling in the affairs of his friends is not one of them."

Nagi snorted at that, but couldn't think of a suitable response. The waitress came back with the cake and left again once she'd been paid. Omi pushed the cake over to Nagi, who just looked at him, then the cake and then him again.

"I'm not hungry."

Omi just looked at him steadily until he picked up the fork. When Nagi made no sign of actually having any intention of using the fork, Omi sighed and picked up the spoon that had been provided with his tea. "We'll share it then."

Watching Omi take a bite of the cake made Nagi smile, a rare occurrence these days. "Do you remember how we met?" He asked, out of the blue.

Omi looked up startled, and swallowed his mouthful before replying, "during that fight…?"

Nagi cheerfully stabbed a piece out of the cake, "no, I meant the first time we met here. Do you remember? I was too busy being gloomy and staring out of the window at the rain to notice who you were and you were too laden down with books and stuff to realise who I was until the waitress came to take your order, and by then it was too late to do anything because she was there as a witness."

Omi smiled slowly, "Yes, this was the only table with a seat left in the whole café, I blame the dirty weather. I'm sorry for being so nostalgic and arranging to meet here again, even the cake," he glanced ruefully down at the half-eaten carrot cake, "is the same."

"It's still as delicious." Nagi said, forgetting for a moment his lack of hunger and taking another bite.

"I always put it down to the flavour being heightened by the company." Omi said and blushed lightly as he realised what he'd just let slip. But Nagi just smiled again and stole another mouthful of quickly being depleted carrot cake.

"What do you think would have happened to us, if things hadn't gone the way they did?" He asked curiously.

"Whatever happened to not dredging up past memories?" Omi asked playfully, but answered Nagi's question anyway, "I think most of us would be dead, and if not, then at the very least, I would never have had the pleasure of your company."

"Eat your carrot cake," Nagi ordered just as playfully, then, glancing at his watch, stood up.

"Where are you going?" Omi asked, a hint of panic in his voice. 

"I have a meeting I can't miss." Another physical therapy session, Nagi added silently. 

"Will I see you again?"

"I should hope so. In fact, if you want, you can walk with me a ways now."

"Gladly." Omi stood too and grabbed his jacket before following Nagi to the exit.  

They walked out into the sunshine and turned left. Neither saying anything but both basking in the other's company. 

After a little while, Omi remarked, "you walk differently than you did before."

Nagi shrugged, "I was in an accident."

Omi's eyes widened as they reached a small clinic and stopped outside the glass front doors. "Are you alright?!"

"I'm still recovering, it's been almost two years now and it'll be a few more; my health wasn't what it was after the accident."

"What happened?" 

Nagi didn't reply immediately but looked away blankly, "Farfarello didn't survive it."

There was nothing he could say to Nagi that would make the loss of his team member hurt any less so he settled for putting a comforting hand on his back. Sometimes, and Omi hoped this would be one of them, actions spoke louder than words.

Nagi looked back at him and after a moment managed a smile, "thank you."

It was something Omi had never thought to hear from him and it warmed him and made him ache with the wish that he could help his friend more.

"It's been too long, Nagi, let's not lose contact again."

Nagi nodded and to Omi's surprise gave him a quick hug, which Omi returned before Nagi pulled away again. Nagi wasn't one for touching other people any more than was necessary, or at least, the old Nagi he'd known wasn't. 

Omi scribbled on a bit of paper, "Here's my address and email." Nagi took it and tore off a bit of paper with his own address on, "and here's mine." Omi made a moue of surprise when he read the address. "What?"

"You live near me!"

Nagi raised an eyebrow, "I do?"

Omi gave him a suspicious glance but let it rest. "Well, you're not going to be rid of me any time soon now, Schwarz." He said and grinned. 

"So you say, Weiss, so you say." The smile on Nagi's face made him look younger, stronger. With a wave he turned away from his laughing companion and made his way into the clinic for another couple of hours of torture. 

He would have thanked Schuldig for being so meddlesome in the affairs of his team-mates, but it would only go to his head, so he resolved to buy the telepath a five star dinner the next time he was in town and spend it scolding him for giving out his home phone number to any old person. That would teach him, he smiled, and suddenly felt that the day (and maybe the next and the next one after that) would not be so tiring and hard to get through as the previous ones.

As for Omi, he went home whistling. 

End


End file.
